Before Laura Marks sat down to write about the great American economic crash, she lived it. You’ll be glad to know she did not actually cause it, although the playwright jokes that in a certain way, she symbolized the mindset behind the meltdown.

Marks was working for a big corporate real-estate firm in New York five years ago when, like countless others in the financial sector and beyond, she was laid off.

As tough as the experience was for a working mother of two young girls, Marks has no misgivings about that part of her life now: “I was very grateful to have a job,” she says. “And I learned a lot — stuff I would’ve never learned otherwise, because I really have no natural bent for finance.”

She adds with a laugh: “You know, hiring me to work at a place like that is classic bubble thinking. There’s the problem right there — don’t hire some liberal-arts person!”

If that’s true, the industry likely won’t get a chance to make the same mistake again: Faced with all that involuntary time off, Marks carved out a brand-new career for herself in theater.

The first version of her play “Bethany,” about an economically distressed woman on a mission, got Marks into the drama program at New York’s esteemed Juilliard School. The finished piece now is about to have its West Coast premiere at the Old Globe Theatre, on the heels of a warmly received 2013 off-Broadway debut starring America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty” fame.

Marks, of course, didn’t know at the time it would all work out that way. But she did have a bit of playwriting experience, with one full-length work and a few one-acts under her belt.

And she did have an abiding love for the pursuit, dating back to her elementary-school days at “a sort of hippie Montessori school” in her native Kentucky.

What she knew was she had a story to tell, and an opportunity — an uncertain, nerve-racking one, maybe, but an opportunity nonetheless — to tell it.

A scene from last year's off-Broadway world premiere of Laura Marks' "Bethany." The Old Globe Theatre is about to open the West Coast premiere of the play.— Carol Rosegg

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A scene from last year's off-Broadway world premiere of Laura Marks' "Bethany." The Old Globe Theatre is about to open the West Coast premiere of the play.
/ Carol Rosegg

As it happened, Marks’ husband, the actor Ken Marks, also was out of work, having been a cast member of “Hairspray” when it closed that same January. (He eventually would end up in the world-premiere Women’s Project staging of “Bethany,” after a long stint in the musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”)

“Fortunately, we had unemployment insurance, and I had a little severance pay,” the playwright says. “But we were like, ‘Wow, how is this really going to work, with a family of four?’ We had two small children and a mortgage.

“So it was a scary time, but it was also kind of a fertile time to write a play. In a weird way, the unemployment and severance subsidized the time to write this play — and the fear motivated the play.”

Real-life parallels

“Bethany” centers on a struggling car saleswoman named Crystal (played at the Globe by Emmy nominee Jennifer Ferrin of AMC-TV’s “Hell on Wheels”), who is driven to put key pieces of her life back together. (Because the play hinges on some plot twists — one of which involves the title — Marks is reluctant to see too much revealed.)

To bring some stability to her existence (or at least the appearance of it), she has moved into a home that doesn’t exactly belong to her. And she’s forced to share it with a fellow interloper named Gary (New York stage veteran Carlo Albán), while dealing with the machinations of a motivational speaker and potential client named Charlie (James Shanklin, another “Hell on Wheels” cast member and a seasoned New York actor).

In a welcome nod to the depth of San Diego’s own acting community, the “Bethany” cast also features three accomplished locals — DeAnna Driscoll (as Shannon), Amanda Naughton (Patricia) and Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson (Toni).

Gaye Taylor Upchurch, who directed the play off-Broadway, returns to stage the Globe production.

Mayoral forum

As "Bethany" takes the stage, the Old Globe is planning a community forum called “At Home in San Diego? The Question of Affordable Housing." The event, set for 6 p.m. Feb. 3, will feature Todd Gloria, San Diego's interim mayor, as a panelist, along with Susan Riggs, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation. Richard C. Gentry, president and CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission, will moderate.

The event is free but reservations are required, by emailing RSVP@TheOldGlobe.org.

Marks talks of two real-life inspirations for writing “Bethany.” The first came when, while she was still in the financial business, she heard a wealthy executive tell colleagues that “people in other parts of the country aren’t hurting the way we are in New York.”

Marks was dumbfounded: “I just realized, this guy has no frame of reference for the people who can’t afford to put gas in their cars. Or the people who are losing their homes. I mean, he just doesn’t see that.”

But “the thing that really got me sparked to write the play was when I read a news story about people squatting in foreclosed houses,” Marks says.

“I thought, wow, that’s a really evocative premise for a play. And also perhaps a strategy I should file away for the future,” she says with a rueful chuckle. “Fortunately, it never got to that.”

Once Marks graduated from Juilliard, she took a cue from Crystal and started marketing “Bethany.” Hard.

“The play had, I believe, 15 readings all told,” Marks says. “I went everywhere that asked me. (Crystal) is a saleswoman, and that’s what I was. I went around with my hat in my hand doing a staged reading anyplace that would have me.”

Part of that involved developing an identity for “Bethany,” a play that doesn’t fit into any easy category. Even the playwright struggles a bit to define it.

“I don’t know. It’s definitely got some lighter moments. I mean, I think life is like that — I don’t think life lends itself to easy categorization. I’m not sure that plays need to, either.”

She does note that “there’s a lot of tension in the play, and you really see the screws tighten on this heroine. So I feel as though the moments where you can release that tension for a second are important, you know?”

Marks also says that while she didn’t set out to write a “message” play, “I think maybe it was subconsciously political. I was just sort of writing what I saw and felt, and it wasn’t until I got pretty far into it that I realized people would see their own communities in it.”

Director Upchurch says that to her, the play works on both intimate and near-universal levels.

“I do feel that Laura’s play is a very personal, private story of this woman,” Upchurch says. “But she’s touching on these enormous topics — socioeconomic conditions, the way we care about people, the American dream.

“I think it’s certainly a look at the landscape — it’s a hard look at the urban landscape now. It’s (also) a little bit of a historical piece,” being set in 2009. “Unfortunately, I think it’s still more relevant now than we thought it would be at this point.”

If economic circumstances haven’t changed radically for a lot of people, “Bethany” has meant this for its writer: A golden résumé-booster that means she’ll likely never return to the industry that tossed her out.

“Knock on wood, I think it has broken me free,” Marks says. “Now I put ‘playwright’ on my tax return. And it feels so good.”